2.15.2005

valentines day show at Anna B's studio in williamsburg. Big A little a played with Matt & Kim. Big A little a is amazing. . . frenetic drum-circle power (3-4 percussionists) with distorted electronic sounds and warped vocals. . . kinda like if Black Dice had gone the opposite direction (more drums, instead of kicking the drummer out) and decided they wanted people to dance like crazy to it. Kim & Matt have massive potential, just gotta work out the kinks. . . as soon as they have something recorded, you know you'll see it here. on a related note, has anyone seen the article on Hisham (previously the aforementioned drummer from Black Dice) in the new issue of Fader? it's about time that boy was gettin' his due. . .

talk about the come-back kid. The Mars Volta sprung from the ashes of At The Drive-In. . . their first album was "ehh." not bad, but not as good as ATDI. . . and then they kind of faded into the background. however, with their new album "Frances The Mute," they have returned and surprised the hell out of people (myself included). the entire album is broken up into five pieces, composed of eighteen "movements," and each one is an epic. the track below is definitely the more "rock" of the five, the others tend to be more subdued and even ambient. dropping the (sort-of) post-emo punk approach, they have instead followed more closely to the voluminous nature of Led Zeppelin. consider it like a hyper-real dream, journeying across one of those dark computer-created terrains they use in fancy car commercials. . . or something like that.